How did it become possible? Supranational Ecumenical developments and changes in Religious Education during the 1960s and 1970s

ArticleThis is the final version of the article. Available from Karlstads Universitet via the link in this record.Existing historiographies of Religious Education (RE) are often written from within national boundaries, reflecting the particular relationship between church and state within those bounded spaces; further, they often focus on the question ‘what happened?’. During the 1960s significant developments took place in the supranational discourse of Christian ecumenism, including the expansion of dialogue between Christians and those of other worldviews (both religious and non-religious) particularly as a result of the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) and the work of the World Council of Churches (established 1948). These supranational ecumenical discourses transcend national boundaries and thus have potential to influence even the most nationally-orientated educational systems. However, their significance has hitherto been overlooked. Using a method derived from the historical work of Michel Foucault, which focuses on the question ‘how did this become possible?’, this paper demonstrates the extent to which an awareness of supranational ecumenical discourses enriches understandings of the development of World Religions Teaching in Religious Education. The English context is used as an exemplar, through a single case study, and the potential of the approach is discussed in relation to other national contexts

The British Council of Churches’ influence on the ‘Radical Rethinking of Religious Education’ in the 1960s & 1970s

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this record.It is widely accepted that during the later 1960s, Religious Education in English statemaintained schools underwent a significant transition, moving from a Christian ‘confessional’ approach to an academic study of world religions. A detailed examination of the activities of the British Council of Churches’ Education Department during the period reveals examples of an active promotion of this study of world religions, something that hitherto has been absent from the historiography of Religious Education. For example, the Education Department organized key conferences, meetings, and consultations, at which future directions for Religious Education were considered and discussed. A research project undertaken for the department in the later 1960s, which lead to the 1968 report ‘Religion and the Secondary School’ (edited by Colin Alves), was prompted by the identification that ‘Today the needs of children and young people demand a radical rethinking and reshaping of the purpose and method of religious education’. This report included a statement specifically encouraging the study of non-Christian religions, a statement repeated in later key documents. This paper will show how the British Council of Churches’ Education Department played a role in the development of the ‘nonconfessional’ study of world religions in English state-maintained schools from as early as the late 1940s

Editorial: ‘Ad fontes’

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the link in this recordEditorial to History of Education Researcher, Vol.97, published May 2016

Editorial: Fifty Years On

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher.2017 marks the 1000th anniversary of England's division into the four Earldoms (Northumbria, Wessex, Mercia, and East Anglia) by the Danish king of England Cnut, the 375th anniversary of the start of the English Civil War, the 200th anniversary of the death of Jane Austen, the hundredth anniversary of Rutherford's successful attempt to split the atom, and the 75th anniversary of the first broadcast of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Fifty years ago, in 1967, the summer of love was shared by many, Donald Campbell died on Coniston Water, and the UK won the Eurovision Song Contest, thanks to Sandie Shaw's Puppet on a string. And, in December of that same year, at the C. F. Mott College of Education, in the city of Liverpool, 150 people gathered together, and the History of Education Society was born. [...

Enriching the Historiography of Religious Education: Insights from Oral Life History

This article seeks to exemplify the extent to which oral life history research can enrich existing historiographies of English Religious Education (RE). Findings are reported from interviews undertaken with a sample of key informants involved in designing and/or implementing significant curriculum changes in RE in the 1960s and 1970s. The interviews provided insights into personal narratives and biographies that have been marginal to, or excluded from, the historical record. Thematic analysis of the oral life histories opened a window into the world of RE, specifically in relation to professional identity and practice, curriculum development, and professional organizations, thereby exposing the operational dynamics of RE at an (inter-)personal and organizational level. The findings are framed by a series of methodological reflections. Overall, oral life histories are shown to be capable of revealing that which was previously hidden and which can be confirmed and contrasted with knowledge gleaned from primary documentary sources

Remote sensing observations of ocean physical and biological properties in the region of the Southern Ocean Iron Experiment (SOFeX)

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 111 (2006): C06026, doi:10.1029/2005JC003289.Satellite remote sensing estimates of surface chlorophyll, temperature, wind speed, and sea ice cover are examined in the region of the Southern Ocean Iron Experiment (SOFeX). Our objectives are to place SOFeX into a regional context and highlight regional mesoscale spatial and monthly temporal variability. SOFeX fertilized two patches with iron, one south of the Antarctic Polar front (PF) and one north of the PF but south of the Subantarctic Front (SAF). Satellite observable phytoplankton blooms developed in both patches. The spring sea-ice retreat near the south patch site was delayed in the 2001-2002 season, in turn delaying the naturally occurring, modest spring bloom in this region. Ambient surface chlorophyll concentrations for the area surrounding the southern patch during January 2002 are low (mean 0.26 mg/m3) compared with climatological January values (0.42 mg/m3). Regions east and west at similar latitudes exhibited higher mean chlorophyll concentrations (0.79 and 0.74 mg/m3, respectively). These modest phytoplankton blooms were likely stimulated by melting sea-ice via changes in the light-mixing regime and release of iron, and were smaller in magnitude than the iron-induced bloom within the SOFeX southern patch (> 3 mg/m3). Iron inputs from melting ice may drive much of the natural spatial and temporal variability within the seasonal ice zone. Mean chlorophyll concentrations surrounding the SOFeX northern patch site were similar to climatological values during the SOFeX season. The northern patch was stretched into a long, thin filament along the southern boundary of the SAF, likely increasing the mixing/dilution rate with surrounding waters.S. Doney and K. Moore were supported by NASA grant NAG5-12520 from the NASA Ocean Biogeochemistry Program

The effect of boundary conditions on tracer estimates of thermocline ventilation rates

Using a simple box mixing model, we show that ventilation rate estimates obtained from tracer box models may be significantly smaller than fluid replacement rates. The degree to which a tracer ventilation estimate approaches the actual (fluid) ventilation rate depends on the surface boundary condition for that tracer. Ventilation rates for rapidly exchanging tracers (e.g. 3He) are close to the fluid ventilation rate while tracers with limited surface exchange (e.g. tritium) ventilate more slowly. For box mixing models, the ratio of ventilation rates for limited surface exchange tracers to rapidly exchanging tracers approaches the ratio of summer to winter mixed layer depths. Further, the distribution of rapidly equilibrating tracers more accurately tracks climatological fluctuations in water mass formation rates. Limited surface exchange tracers show a damping proportional to the ratio of summer to winter mixed layer depths. To compare model results with observations, we calculate 3He and tritium ventilation rates from data taken in 1979 in the eastern subtropical North Atlantic. In calculating the tritium ventilation rates, we modify a North Atlantic tritium “source function” (time history of-surface water tritium concentrations), extending previous work using recent data. On shallow density surfaces (σ \u3c 27.0), the computed tritium ventilation rates are 2–3 times slower than those for 3He, in agreement with climatological ratio of summer to winter mixed layer depths. Deeper in the thermocline, the two tracer estimated ventilation rates converge. This trend may be related to the decreasing effectiveness of 3He gas exchange in equilibrating the deeper winter mixed layers of the more northerly isopycnal outcrops. We conclude that box models using limited surface exchange tracers (e.g. 14C and tritium) can under predict oxygen utilization rates (OUR) by up to 3 times due to differences in tracer boundary conditions, while a tracer like 3He may overestimate OUR by 10–20%

The Professionalisation of Non-Denominational Religious Education in England: Politics, Organisation and Knowledge

In response to contemporary concerns, and using neglected primary sources, this article explores the professionalisation of teachers of Religious Education (RI/RE) in non-denominational, state-maintained schools in England. It does so from the launch of Religion in Education (1934) and the Institute for Christian Education at Home and Abroad (1935) to the founding of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales (1973) and the British Journal of Religious Education (1978). Professionalisation is defined as a collective historical process in terms of three inter-related concepts: (1) professional self-organisation and professional politics, (2) professional knowledge, and (3) initial and continuing professional development. The article sketches the history of non-denominational religious education prior to the focus period, to contextualise the emergence of the professionalising processes under scrutiny. Professional self-organisation and professional politics are explored by reconstructing the origins and history of the Institute of Christian Education at Home and Abroad, which became the principal body offering professional development provision for RI/RE teachers for some fifty years. Professional knowledge is discussed in relation to the content of Religion in Education which was oriented around Christian Idealism and interdenominational networking. Changes in journal name in the 1960s and 1970s reflected uncertainties about the orientation of the subject and shifts in understanding over the nature and character of professional knowledge. The article also explores a particular case of resistance, in the late 1960s, to the prevailing consensus surrounding the nature and purpose of RI/RE, and the representativeness and authority of the pre-eminent professional body of the time. In conclusion, the article examines some implications which may be drawn from this history for the prospects and problems of the professionalisation of RE today

Interrogating policy processes in education through Statement Archaeology: changes in English religious education

This is the final version. Available on open access from Routledge via the DOI in this recordThis paper firstly presents Statement Archaeology, an innovative and rigorous method devised to systematically operationalise the approach to historical exploration used by Michel Foucault in pursuit of the question “how do certain practices become possible at particular moments in history?” Drawing on an analysis of the theoretical basis of Foucault’s broad–and arguably equivocal–approach, a series of methodological procedures by which it can be systematically operationalised are set out. These focus on the interrogation of “statements”, through a series of questions, against three criteria: Formation, Transformation, and Correlation. Secondly, through the use of a specific policy development in English Religious Education as an exemplar, the paper establishes the potential of the approach. Deploying Statement Archaeology in relation to this example reveals that the change under investigation became possible at a nexus of changes in the rules of what is thinkable and unthinkable within different domains of discourse, and complex and messy processes of changing legitimacies and normalisations, with previously unacknowledged policy-influencers playing an important role. Many existing accounts of this change have overlooked these matters. The paper concludes by arguing that Statement Archaeology has potential significance in any domain of enquiry that seeks answers to the question “how did this particular practice become possible at that particular moment?”.British Academ